Afri’s action-packed year once again commences with a moment of rich reflection on Louie Bennett’s legacy.
We will gather at the bench commemorating her and her partner Helen Chenevix (1886-1963) in Stephen’s Green at 2 pm next Tuesday, 7th January, the anniversary of Louie’s birth in 1870. The bench was unveiled two years after her death in 1956 and is curved in honour of her commitment to conversation – a turning towards one another, whatever challenges we face. This notion is beautifully captured in the Irish word caidreamh, which headlines Article 29 of Bunreacht na hÉireann, our commitment to peaceful conflict resolution under international law. 
Louie Bennett, a novelist who loved her garden, would encourage us to pause and reflect there so as to re-engage with the challenges and conflicts of our time. A central figure in the Irish Women Workers’ Union and the first female President of the Congress of Trades Unions, from her Church of Ireland background, she was staunch for Irish freedom through radically peaceful means, within a resolutely internationalist perspective.
During World War I – a time like ours when the world seemed hell-bent on destructive enmities – Louie worked tirelessly to maintain and restore the possibilities of peace. She was equally resolute in confronting Irish militarism during the struggle for independence, and in the 1950s as the seductions of the Cold War began to warp our foreign policy and Neutrality. She was central in the Irishwomen’s International League, which invited the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom to Dublin. WILPF eagerly accepted the invitation in Summer 1926, bringing the very first international conference held in the fledgling Free State.
There are few, if any, figures from our first century who can encourage and challenge us in the causes of peace, human rights and social transformation, as did Louie Bennett and Helen Chenevix. We will be joined by Joe Black Ryder and the Resistance Choir to honour that legacy next Tuesday.
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